Bolton 1500 Watt Motor Upgrade

[billnye97]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my 2018 Rad City to the Bolton 1500 Watt Motor, controller, and display upgrade. However, when I am riding the power cuts out if I go to Pedal Assist 5 or if I give the throttle a full twist. Any ideas on what is going on? Here are the settings I programmed.

LIM: 72 km/h
DIM: 26"
UNT: 3
P1: 46
P2:6
P3: 1
P4: 0
P5:0
C1: 3
C2: 0
C3: 1
C4: 0
C5: 2
C6: 3
C7: 1
C8: 0
C9: 0
C10: N
C11:0
C12:4
C13:0
C14:1
L1:0
L2:0
L3:1
L4:5

When I ride it doesn't appear to go above 750 watts so I'm not sure if it is a setting or something else going on. Any help would be appreciated.

[Eric7]

What battery are you using?  I wonder if it is the battery that is limiting.  I believe each battery should have some protection circuit to prevent rapid discharge, short circuit, or a fire.

By the way, how does the motor feel?  Are you getting all the power otherwise?  Must be powerful at 1500 watts.  Is there drag when you are not using the motor - I have heard all direct drive motors have a drag (or regeneration mode) when they are not being used.

[billnye97]

It's the stock Rad battery that I'm using. Otherwise it flies.

[Eric7]

It's the stock Rad battery that I'm using. Otherwise it flies.

Did the seller, presumably Bolton, ever helped you out on this one?

[jbfoster]

This is on Area 13(Bolton) web site.

1500W Motor Kit Settings
After installation of your 1500W Motor Kit, be sure to program it properly.

Here are the settings:

P1 = 46
P2 = 0
P3 = 1
P4 = 0
P5 = 12
C1 = 2
C2 = 0
C3 = 1
C4 = 4
C5 = 8
C6 = 3
C7 = 0
C8 = 0
C9 = 0
C10 = N
C11 = 0
C12 = 4
C13 = 0
C14 = 2

[JimInPT]

After fiddling a bit, starting from other peoples' recommendations, including a couple members of this forum, here's a chart of what I tried and where I ended up; note that I've got it installed on a 2021 MiniST2, with tire size based on the CST Big Boats and calibrated with GPS.

[Eric7]

After fiddling a bit, starting from other peoples' recommendations, including a couple members of this forum, here's a chart of what I tried and where I ended up; note that I've got it installed on a 2021 MiniST2, with tire size based on the CST Big Boats and calibrated with GPS.

Thank you, as always, for your informative post.

Follow-up question.  How or maybe why did you end up with these settings?  What was the reasoning behind where you ended up?

Also, any long-term reviews? 

I am still at about 6 months.  I'll consider at my one year date.

[JimInPT]

Follow-up question.  How or maybe why did you end up with these settings?  What was the reasoning behind where you ended up?

Also, any long-term reviews? 

I am still at about 6 months.  I'll consider at my one year date.

After I ordered it, and was waiting to install it, I started poking around to see what people were using, and on which bike, posting their settings to the spreadsheet as you can see.  I entered the EBW (Electro Bike World, a reseller of the same product, like Bolton) and Bolton numbers, followed by the other three, users here on this forum as I recall.

Then I went down the columns to compare one with another, not worrying about the DIM and UNT values since those vary by bike and location and don't matter to my settings (I did check the value of 23 against my GPS and it's very close; changing to 22 or 24 was significantly less accurate, but everybody should do the same test if you want accurate speed and odometer readings).  Some, like P4, C3, C6 etc. are personal preference and some are not relevant for Rad bikes, like C8.  So that narrowed down the ones to examine pretty quickly.

Then I took the ones where everybody was in agreement, like P4, and just set mine that way.  Now what I was left with was pretty much fine-tuning and personal preference stuff, like P1, P5, C5 and C14 - this is where I spent some time trying different values to see what I liked, finally setting them as you see in the 25 April column, where they remain.  I think settings like these you'll just have to try and see what works for you; if you want USA units and have a Mini, Runner or Expand the other settings will probably work for you since the tire size and sensors are the same for all as far as I know.  I did end up with a setting package that differs from all the others, mostly from personal preference but I also think some people don't quite understand what C5 does in the lower number settings (I didn't until I read the full, long PDF manual).  C12 will vary if you end up with a battery that's other than 48V, but for all stock Rads it's 4, as shown.

I think C5 is the trickiest, since (as I recall; see the full manual) the "output percentage" settings are really from 5-10 or 6-10 and 0-4 or 0-5 are for tuning how fast the power comes on to a maximum of 100%.  So C5 = 0 and C5 = 10 both give you 100% max power, but they differ greatly in how fast the power is applied from a stop.  Try 0 through 4 to see what you like best, assuming you want 100% of max power available; I oscillated between 0 and 1, finally setting on 0 as you see.  It makes a difference how fast you launch with the throttle from a stop - I thought the more-aggressive settings were too "lumpy" and harsh for my taste, but YMMV.

Also note P5; as I recall that one controls how the display represents remaining battery capacity, you can set it more or less aggressive or conservative I think.  I might change that one if the number of displayed bars don't correlate well to remaining battery capacity over time and usage.  Unfortunately, this display has only 4 bars, less than the 5 on the stock controller or 10, which is what I'd prefer for better resolution.  I think that may be the only thing on this upgrade that's a negative compared to stock.  But it does have a voltage display, so I think I'll switch to using that as my fuel gauge.

No real "long term" review yet, since I just did the upgrade/mod recently and local weather has been too cold and/or wet for riding, so I only have about 30-40 miles on those latest settings - but so far I like them a lot and the controller/display has been working 100% fine.

Let me know if you need more info, but it's pretty simple to fiddle the settings - just carry a printout of what each one does with you, try stuff, stop, adjust, ride some more and keep notes.  You'll get there pretty quickly I think.

BTW, I waited a year until my warranty ran out as well; that correlated with snow / no-snow on the ground too, so it wasn't much of a hardship to bide my time.

[Eric7]

Let me know if you need more info, but it's pretty simple to fiddle the settings - just carry a printout of what each one does with you, try stuff, stop, adjust, ride some more and keep notes.  You'll get there pretty quickly I think.

BTW, I waited a year until my warranty ran out as well; that correlated with snow / no-snow on the ground too, so it wasn't much of a hardship to bide my time.

Thank you very much.  It was very informative. 

When it comes time to change your battery, do you think you'll go for a 52v battery as a second battery?  Or do you think you will buy a 48 volt battery as your second battery?

[JimInPT]

When it comes time to change your battery, do you think you'll go for a 52v battery as a second battery?  Or do you think you will buy a 48 volt battery as your second battery?

I don't know, but I doubt I'd bother with a 52v unless I could get one that would just drop into the Rad battery mount and fits within the tubing box that's part of the MiniST frame.  I wasn't looking for more speed (normally achieved via higher voltage), just more torque, and the Bolton delivers that in spades.  Also I believe the Rad motor has a speed-limiting circuit built in that prevents more than about 25mph anyway, no matter the voltage.

I'd be interested in more Ah capacity in a new battery, for more range (although I'm not really range-limited now on a full charge), but we'll see what's available when the time comes, if I'm still around to find out.  Unless something goes wrong with the stock battery, it should last around 20k miles and by then I might have another bike or who knows.......

I'm actually quite satisfied with the controller and brake-caliper upgrades and they'll probably be just what I need for some time to come if all goes well.